By Peggy Fikac - Express-News columnist :
June 21, 2010

The agency's ethics officer,Jim Pollard, has put out a memo entitled “Procedures for Political Season” as GOP state Agriculture CommissionerTodd Staples faces a re-election challenge from Democrat Hank Gilbert.

The memo — a section of which has drawn Gilbert's fire — describes in detail how to carry out the requirement that “no political activity may be undertaken when conducting state business.”

No displaying “political paraphernalia” in agency offices. No political activity using state equipment. Employees can give callers contact information for Staples' and Gilbert's campaigns upon request (thoughtfully provided in the memo, though the phone number for Gilbert is an old one that's been disconnected). There's a script to deal with calls requesting political information about other races.

The provision that stirred the Gilbert camp: “All incoming predominantly political e-mail correspondence shall be considered misdirected e-mail. All misdirected e-mail shall be forwarded to (the campaign e-mail address) and then deleted.”

“High-level staffers within TDA could easily use this as a way to quietly dispose of e-mail correspondence that they believe would somehow discredit the department if it were discovered,” said Gilbert spokesman Vince Leibowitz. He said if an e-mail “is only ‘predominantly political,' it likely includes some aspect of TDA business,” and he doesn't like that the determination of what's political is left to staff.

Pollard said in a statement, “This legal guidance memorandum speaks for itself. The policies in the document are longstanding practices of the agency to ensure full compliance with state ethics laws.”

Campaign spokesman Cody McGregor slammed Gilbert on various other matters for even bringing it up, then Leibowitz slammed back. I'll resist the urge to digress.

Bottom line, is it OK to delete e-mails like this? So it would seem. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission has broad guidelines for how long agencies must retain specific types of records. General correspondence, for example, must be kept for a year. Transitory correspondence can be deleted right away. It's up to each agency to set up its own retention plan, and generally it's up to employees who receive the e-mail to categorize it.

In other offices headed by non-judicial statewide elected officials, spokespeople generally told me they also forward political e-mail to their various campaigns or to the officeholder. Such e-mail may be deleted at the receiver's discretion. The Railroad Commission noted that its filters target and delete non-work-related e-mail and mass e-mailings.

One possible takeaway comes fromKeith Elkinsof the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. He said his group “has been a vocal advocate in favor of a comprehensive records retention policy for the state of Texas, and this is simply the latest example of why state lawmakers should seriously address this issue during the upcoming 82nd legislative session.”

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It was a campaign road trip last week for Andrea White and B.A. Bentsen. The two made the round trip from Houston to Austin and back in a day for a reception at the home of Gail and Neil Miller. White, wife of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White, said she looks to the widow of former U.S. Sen.Lloyd Bentsen as a role model: “She loved campaigning, and she brought a peace and a joy to it that I just admire a lot ... It's just wonderful to be around someone who loved and enjoyed the life that I'm going to be living this summer and fall.”

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GOP Gov. Rick Perry is due to return from China this week, and White's sure to keep pressing him for a debate. Democrats drew attention to the issue in a big way last week by taking over an anti-White press conference by Perry spokesmanMark Miner staged in front of White's Austin campaign office. Miner, who was attacking White over a business deal, was drowned out by protesters (one in a chicken suit) chanting “Debate Bill White” and “Rick ‘Chicken' Perry,” as reported by the AP's April Castrowho had this gem of a line: “Miner appeared unperturbed, continuing to speak to reporters who couldn't hear him.” Perry's camp has tied the debate issue to White releasing his tax returns. White has released them for his years as Houston mayor, but Perry also wants White to release his returns for his time as deputy energy secretary under President Clinton and as Democratic Party chairman. White spokeswomanKaty Bacon indicated that won't happen: “We're done playing political games.” It's week two of waiting for Perry to agree to a debate, counting from White's release of his tax returns as mayor.